Although idiotically cut short, Cracker is a superb show. Viewers in 70 different countries were able to tune into the fascinating, edge-of-seat dramas that unrolled in each show. With Robert as the hard-drinking, hard-living, non-smoking (!) Fitz, it was undoubtedly one of the finest pieces of television for a good while. Nadine Nohr, Managing Director of BRITE (British Television Enterprises), said "we have never had a programme which has moved this quickly before. There has been a phenomenal level of interest amongst buyers who have recognised that this is a unique project which will deliver them the best of both worlds - UK creativity and US pace and volume. It is a fantastic accolade for the series this number of agreements have been reached during such a small space of time." Below is a report on the cancellation of the show.
For any of you who missed an episode or two, here is the episode listings guide.The following report was borrowed from the internet and we have decided to print it as it attempts to explain why the show's ratings were not great and also that, even though it was a superb show, it had the odds stacked against it from the start.
"ABC has pulled the plug on the Robert Pastorelli drama, Cracker, less than one week after the show made its debut on Saturday. Nothing Sacred, Cracker's lead-in, will also be pulled, but will be relaunched in March, most likely in the 9 pm time slot. Both shows will air final episode this Saturday. Cracker's episode is the conclusion to last week's episode about a sniper with a vendetta killing people in Los Angeles.
The news comes as something as a surprise, since ABC had appeared committed to the drama, even with its low performance in the ratings. Initially, there was mixed word as to whether the show would be picked up, but the network eventually announced that the show was picked up for a full order of 22 episodes. However, soon after, with the cancelations of C-16 and Total Security, ABC decided to shuffle its schedule around and announced that Cracker and Nothing Sacred would be moved to Saturday to fill the slots. The news was not good for the shows, since Saturday has been a graveyard for ABC's programs, and is also the lowest-watched night in television.
Cracker's Executive Producer James Sadwith wasn't sure what the move would bring, but was positive that ABC would stand behind the show until the end of the season. Unfortunately, Cracker drew only 4.25 million viewers in its first showing (Nothing Sacred drew 5.7 million) in a slot that Total Security was drawing virtually the same numbers of viewers. It's not known what ABC expected after only one showing, since Cracker was going up three established foes, The Pretender on NBC (12.39 million viewers), Early Edition on CBS (12.9 million) and America's Most Wanted (11.22 million) in a slot that traditionally has been under performing for the network. What ABC expected in terms of viewers is unknown, but it couldn't have thought that Cracker and Nothing Sacred would appear and compete in only the first week. The midseason replacements brought in on Thursday drew average numbers, for premieres, but are likely to fall in the coming weeks. Prey drew 9.76 million viewers at 8:00 pm, while the 9 pm movie, On the Line, drew 9.59 million.
For ABC, this means that virtually every new drama introduced at the beginning of the year has been canceled. Timecop, Total Security, C-16 and now Cracker -- with the only other drama, Nothing Sacred, on life support. The trend means that ABC is really in trouble, since it has slipped to third in the overall ratings, and has only been in the race because of Monday Night Football. Either it isn't doing a good job in promoting itself, or maybe the shows just aren't that good. In the case of Timecop and Total Security, the latter could be true. However, C-16 was well-done, and Cracker, though well-written and acted, was extremely risky, since the hero was not the most likable character, and the format unusual for American viewers. Unfortunately, as many shows have shown in the past, quality and inventiveness don't guarantee viewers, and this cancelation proves it once again."
NEW YORK -- The next time you hear some wimp actor grouse about how hard it was breaking in -- just because he worked as a waiter, shared a flat with four friends and found himself rejected a few hundred times at auditions -- think about Robert Pastorelli.
He lived in his car for 18 months! And he bartended "in places where, if you had teeth, you were a preferred customer."
Parked at Second St. and Avenue B in lower Manhattan, the wreck of a car he had driven in from his New Jersey hometown served as his house, as storage space for his theatre books and as a base he likens to "home room" in school.
He loved it. "It was pretty wild," Pastorelli, who now owns a real house and three Cadillacs, says of his crazy days, "although I always depended on the kindness of ladies. When I was living in my car, I always managed to get a hot meal or a bed."
There were weird moments. "I'd come 'home' and find some other guys sleeping in my car or shooting up in my car. So I roped the doors shut and I had a certain knot underneath I'd tie. The junkies couldn't really get the knot undone because they were too high. But it was a fun time, you know. I mean, I was just in my early 20s, man."
Pastorelli is now a fortysomething success story as a Hollywood character actor. Best known as Eldin, the unfinished house painter hanging out at Candice Bergen's place on Murphy Brown, Pastorelli co-starred with John Travolta in the movie Michael and is now on the screen opposite Martin Short in the wacky kids comedy A Simple Wish. He plays a horse hack driver in Central Park and he's raising two kids alone while pining for a career on Broadway. Pastorelli, flashing an enormous tattoo of the archangel Michael slaying a serpent, is wonderfully versatile as an actor.
"I can be whatever the character calls for," he offers.
The interview takes place on Pastorelli's birthday, which he is 'celebrating' with a day of promotion for A Simple Wish. Asked his age, he chortles and answers: "I was born when Elvis drove a truck, so you can figure that one out."
Pastorelli's sense of humor, lack of ego and his colorful past -- which includes bad boy trouble that involved the cops in Jersey as well as his bouts of seedy bartending -- prepared him well for later-in-life success. It's the only way he knows.
"That was the only experience I know so I don't know how it would have tasted if I didn't come from that," he muses. "I didn't have any money. I just had the car (until New York city officials towed it away).
"You know those songs that say: 'When you got nothing you got nothing to lose'? There is a real freedom in that. I was really living like a gypsy bohemian artist and it was a good thing. At the time, it was really exciting.
"Now, you know what gives me a real feeling of peace? If that ever happens -- that this is a dream and I wake up -- I know I'd be okay. I'd be okay. I'm a survivor."
The three Caddies -- one of his few extravagant purchases since Hollywood made him take more money than he ever dreamed of -- make him comfortable too. If his life falls apart financially, he can always move back into one of them. "The other two can be guest houses if anyone stays over."
Meanwhile, the overgrown kid who wisecracks that his school classmates could have voted him "the most likely to die in a gas chamber" is hotter than ever. In the fall, you'll see him star as an LAPD officer in the new American version of the crackling British series Cracker. Life is good.
NEW YORK -- Robert Pastorelli has a genuine fondness for cars. The man who played Eldin, the house painter, for seven seasons on Murphy Brown owns three vintage Cadillacs. "I keep them in top running condition but I don't drive them very far.
"When I have to go any real distance, I rent a car," explains Pastorelli.
When Pastorelli, 43, was a struggling young actor in New York, he slept in a 1967 Dodge.
"It was so rundown that I had to rope the doors shut but it was my home."
By acting as the custodian at the performing arts studio where he was studying, Pastorelli got his classes free. He earned money for food and clothes by selling newspapers on Broadway and working weekends as a bouncer at an after-hours club.
"It's not as bad as it sounds. I was actually having a blast with this arrangement until I came home from class one day to discover that my car had been towed.
"I moved in with another classmate and her husband."
Pastorelli says if his career goes on the skids, he now has a choice of really comfortable cars to choose from and a couple to act as guest rooms for visitors.
It doesn't look as if Pastorelli will be moving into his cars any time soon.
After just coming off the success of the John Travolta comedy Michael, he's starring with Martin Short and Kathleen Turner in the family comedy A Simple Wish, opening in Edmonton on Friday.
He has a weekly one-hour drama series, Cracker, ready for the fall TV season.
It's based on the British series which starred Robbie Coltrane.
"We're hoping to keep our show as real and gritty as the British version. ABC has promised me that we can push the envelope as much as possible."
Pastorelli will play Gerry Fitzgerald, a sarcastic LAPD psychologist with an acute understanding of the criminal mind.
With Murphy Brown in its final season, the show's producers have contacted Pastorelli about returning for at least one episode.
"I told them I'd do the final episode if they allowed Eldin to propose to Murphy. It's what everyone wanted and expected to happen for so long.
"Murphy doesn't have to accept Eldin's offer; he just has to be allowed to ask."
Pastorelli sports some rather impressive tattoos.
From his right shoulder, extending down, the arm is a huge snake. "It's St. Michael, killer of demons," explains Pastorelli.
"I got the tattoo when I was 19 to exorcise one of my demons and to protect me from ones I knew I'd face," he says.
He has a rose tattoo on his chest, which he says "was created to hide the initials of a woman I thought I was going to love forever."
His other five tattoos are in more intimate locations.
"I got my first tattoo when I was 13, long before Cher and Madonna made them in vogue."
NEW YORK --Robert Pastorelli once called himself an old greaser from Jersey. Now, thanks to the polish celebrity brings, Pastorelli is more like a good-natured wiseguy from Jersey.
Here to talk about the new Nora Ephron movie, Michael, Pastorelli's general look has certain sartorial touches straight from the heart of South Edison, N.J: His hair has a pompadourish front tip, his shoes are truly magnificent pointy jobs from the '50s.
In this interview, Pastorelli offers a hip, humorous, vaguely `street' persona that may or may not have much to do with who he really is. There's something immediately likable about this guy, but there are moments when you'd suspect he's a lot more intense than he's letting on.
Anyway, as celebrity goes, `Bobby' Pastorelli, now 42, is in the most enviable of spots.
Murphy Brown's housepainter is famous enough to enjoy all the perqs of being a recognizable face, but not so famous that he has to leave his house with bodyguards.
"You do get recognized," Pastorelli concedes, "especially when you've done a series. It's nice. People run up and hug me when I'm here in New York," he says in his laconic, faintly ironic way.
The actor pats his back pockets. "And when they do, I always check to see if I've been clipped."
In Michael, Pastorelli plays a tabloid reporter sent (along with co-star William Hurt) to Iowa to retrieve an angel and bring that celestial being back to Chicago for Christmas.
The movie, which opened here Christmas Day, stars John Travolta as the angel.
Last summer, Pastorelli worked with another superstar when he starred with Arnold Schwarzenegger in Eraser.
He talks with affection about both actors and describes the fan mob scenes when either actor shows up.
Asked about superstar ego, he just shrugs. "I've worked with some pretty big stars. I've never had a problem. But, you know, the lesser the talent, the larger the arrogance."
Pastorelli, who once described himself as "a blue-collar worker - I go where the work is," seems arrogance-free. He has worked extensively in theatre, had his own TV series (Double Rush) after Murphy Brown, made his mark in movies in Dances With Wolves and also appeared in Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit, Striking Distance and The Paint Job.
And here's his take on fame: "My best friends are still the two guys I grew up with."
Though he's best known for comedy, Pastorelli has won critical acclaim for his more dramatic roles. He admits to a passion for old monster movies - The Hunchback Of Notre Dame and The Phantom Of The Opera - and says, "The ones I loved were the misunderstood ones. It always fascinated me to get into someone's soul like that. I would love to play something like The Elephant Man."
Meanwhile, Pastorelli has to act with a dog through most of Michael. In one scene, the little mongrel licks his face in a most loving way.
"Well, yeah - this thing comes charging at me," he says, "because there was dog food all over my neck. I was hoping he wouldn't pull out a major vein or anything."
His next project is Simple Wish. "I play a widower who's an aspiring actor - who drives a hansom cab. My dream is to be on Broadway. My daughter's fairy godmother puts a spell on me and I become the toast of the town.
"From animals to children," he says, sighing in mock resignation. "What a guy."